Woldemar Voigt (engineer)

Woldemar Voigt (10 February 1907 – June 1980) was a German aerospace engineer, who was responsible for some of the advanced swept wing German jet-powered aircraft at the end of World War II.

Early life[]

His grandfather was the famous German physicist Woldemar Voigt (1850-1919), known for Voigt notation, Voigt profile and the Voigt effect, and who introduced the term tensor in 1898. He was born in February 1907 in Göttingen; he was the oldest of four brothers. His father was Karl Voigt (1879–1965).

He studied at technical high school in Darmstadt, in the south of Hesse.

Career[]

Klemm[]

He worked for Klemm, designing the Klemm Kl 35.

Messerschmitt[]

Messerschmitt Me-262 in January 1976 at the RAF Museum in north London; Woldemar Voigt was head of the aircraft's design team^[1]

He joined Messerschmitt, in Bavaria, in 1933.

He was the project leader for the designs of the Messerschmitt Me 264 (four-engined bomber), Messerschmitt Me 328, and the infamous rocket-engined Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. He oversaw the design of the swept-wing Messerschmitt P.1101 jet fighter, which was never built (by the Germans), but provided a valued contribution to early American swept-wing jet fighters. From October 1938, Messerschmitt had been looking at designs for jet fighter aircraft. He was head of the Projects Department from 1939.^[2] At Messerschmitt, other designers included .

In October 1943, the Messerschmitt design department moved to Oberammergau in southern Bavaria, on the Austrian border. The NATO School has been on the site since 1953.

Vought[]

He went to work for the American aircraft company Vought, with one of his first designs being the Vought F7U Cutlass, which was developed from German scientists' data on swept-wing jet aircraft.

Personal life[]

He married Clara Hollerung (born 12 September 1911) in 1935. He died in June 1980 in America, aged 73. He had lived in Annapolis, Maryland.

See also[]

• List of German aircraft projects, 1939–45
• List of German inventors and discoverers
• Richard Vogt (aircraft designer), later worked for Boeing

References[]

External links[]

• Family tree